Nigerian woman gives birth on board rescued ship

A Nigerian woman has given birth to a boy on board a rescued ship in the Mediterranean after being plucked from an overcrowded rubber dinghy, the BBC reported yesterday.

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said because the baby was born in international waters, his nationality was still under debate.

A midwife on board the ship MV Aquarius described the birth as “normal… in dangerously abnormal conditions”.

The MSF said the baby’s parents, Otas and Faith Ogunbor, named him Newman Otas. They had been making the perilous crossing with their two other children, aged seven and five, and were rescued just 24 hours before the baby was born.

Thousands of refugees and migrants risk the dangerous crossing from Libya to Europe in search of a better life.

Last year, more than 3,700 people are believed to have died attempting the journey.

MSF communications officer Alva White reported the baby’s birth in a series of tweets yesterday from the Aquarius – a search and rescue vessel – run by the group SOS Mediterranee in partnership with MSF.